FaceApp, the application that predicts how one's older version would look like, has gone viral. The app uses algorithms that analyse your photo and predict how old or young you’ll look.
The ‘old person’ filter has proven to be very popular and Kenyans, especially renowned figures, have shaken social media with their aged photos.
There have been data security concerns arising from the app's stipulated terms and conditions.
"You grant FaceApp a perpetual, irrevocable, nonexclusive, royalty-free, worldwide, fully-paid, transferable sub-licensable license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, publicly perform and display your user content," part of the terms and conditions read.
Whenever one utilises this application, you give the developers a free license to use your photos as outlined in their terms.
Another issue the application comes with is the possibility of one being tracked as it provides users' location when actively using it without their permission.
"When you post or otherwise share user content on or through our services, you understand that your user content and any associated information (such as your [username], location or profile photo) will be visible to the public," another clause on section 5 of the conditions reads.
The situation has caused a global unease that the US Senate Minority Leader, Chuck Schumer, called for an investigation into the innovation's developers by the FBI.
"I have serious concerns regarding both the protection of the data that is being aggregated, as well as whether users are aware of who may have access to it," part of his letter reads.
Despite all this hullaballoo, FaceApp issued a statement that most images were deleted from its servers within 48 hours of being uploaded.
This application first hit the headlines two years ago with its "ethnicity filters" that attempted to transform faces of one ethnicity into another - a feature that sparked a backlash and was quickly dropped.
Watch the video of celebrities enjoying the FaceApp challenge below:
